Panacea
by Chrysilian
Summary: Kakashi had always known there was a very high possibility that he'd end up killed and buried in some unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere, never to be found. He'd just never expected it to be quite so far. Post Kakashi Gaiden.


_**Chapter 1**_

The mission had been relatively simple.

Track the thieves, take them down, and return the item to the client.

Simple. Straightforward. Easy.

_Too _easy.

Before taking the mission, Kakashi had thought to voice his annoyance over the Hokage's choice. Why the man had chosen _this_ particular mission of all missions for him to take on was beyond him. It was a simple retrieval mission, one normally assigned to genin. There was nothing special about it; at least, nothing in the case file seemed to indicate anything out of the ordinary. It was simply what it was: an easy, uncomplicated C-ranked mission. But that was exactly his issue with it. It was beginner's work, not something for a high-ranking jonin like him. It was nowhere near the caliber he typically worked at, and had he not known the Third as well as he did, Kakashi would have considered it an insult to his abilities. But, having become one of the few people the Third liked to keep a close eye on (the reason behind the close supervision notwithstanding), Kakashi had become familiar with the way the Hokage worked, and he knew the man rarely did things without good cause or reason.

The motive had been glaringly obvious while he made the trek from his house to the village gates, and he quickly realized that he understood exactly the reasoning behind the Third's actions.

Konoha was in a bad state.

Three months after the infamous Nine-Tails had come down on the prosperous village, leaving only destruction and terror in its wake, the people of Konoha were still struggling to recover from the extensive damage. Since the attack, the whole village seemed to come to a standstill, reconstruction having taken priority over everything else. Ninja of every rank, including genin, were dispatched at almost every hour of the day, assisting in the restoration of the Hidden Leaf Village. The Academy students were tasked with removing rubble and debris—the Academy (what was left of it) had been shut down temporarily, as there were no experienced ninja available to teach the students. Even the civilians were kept busy through the nights with difficult tasks.

It was clear: Konoha's resources were being stretched too thin.

It would only be a matter of time before a rival village started planning a move against them (Kakashi didn't think for even a second that multiple villages hadn't already begun doing so), and Konoha would be completely susceptible to any and all attacks.

Which is why it was so important that Konoha finished rebuilding itself as quickly as possible.

It was also why Kakashi knew this mission he had just completed was a ruse. It did not matter whether or not he successfully carried out his assigned task. The whole mission was a tactical move to give the other villages the impression of a strong fortification in Konoha. It was essential that his village's vulnerability not be let known to the rest of the world.

Of course, keeping it private was impossible now that the Nine-Tails' attack was widespread knowledge. It was inevitable that news pertaining to the most powerful of the tailed demons spread to the four corners of the world. The only thing the ninja of Konoha could do now was set up their defenses.

From what Kakashi was able to glean of the Hokage's plan, if they kept a consistent flow of ninja out in plain view of the world, under the guise of accepting and completing missions, they would be able to successfully deceive the other villages into believing Konoha was better off than it really was. It would buy their village the needed time to fully recover from the destruction.

And if any of their enemies did manage to catch on to some part of their plan, it did not make much of a difference at this point. None of the villages could risk the potential financial backlash that would result on the off chance that they were wrong.

At least, not so soon after the end of the war.

Kakashi glared at the branch below his feet; his fists clenched painfully at his sides.

"Something bothering you, Hatake?" A deep voice to his left inquired.

Kakashi forced his hands to relax as he looked over at his calm teammate with a half-lidded eye and tersely answered, "No."

"Good. We're about half a day from Konoha. Keep your head. I don't want to waste any more time out here."

Without a second glance, his teammate and leader, Yoshio, pushed off from the tree he had been leaning against and bent to grab his pack from the floor. He settled it securely on his back and focused his eyes on the last member of their three-man cell.

"You've cleared the area?" A nod.

"Good. Kaito, you're to my left. Hatake, behind me. Let's move!"

The two older ninja sprinted forward and leapt up into the trees.

After a second, Kakashi followed, leaving a good three meters between them.

In the distance, the sky began to lighten. Dawn was approaching.

Their team moved at a breakneck speed, and their surroundings quickly became nothing but colored blurs. They had been traveling nonstop (at the insistence of Yoshio, though neither Kaito nor Kakashi were opposed to it) since they had completed their mission two days before, and other than the short four hour break they had been forced to take, they intended to move until they reached their village's gates. They had managed to cut their travel time nearly in half, and yet it still felt as if they weren't moving _fast_ enough.

Although Kakashi would be hard-pressed to acknowledge it, he had been filled with a sense of urgency ever since they had started the mission. There was coil of tension within him that he could not rid from his body. Even during his two-hour rest, he found he couldn't ease himself into a complete state of calm, and as a result, had not gotten a wink of sleep. (In truth, he'd been suffering from a bout of insomnia for many weeks now.) Kakashi wasn't the only one, of course. Both his older teammates had been teeming with edginess the whole week. They had all been opposed to accepting this mission. Kakashi could admit though, to having felt this apprehension long before he had passed his village's outer perimeter. Since the attack three months ago, to be more specific. He had been reluctant to venture too far from the village because he knew what he was waiting for, what they were all waiting for. An invasion was imminent. He could feel it in his bones.

They needed to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible. Kakashi knew he wouldn't be alleviated until he had the village secure under his eye.

His team continued to move silently through the thick forest.

Soon enough, the sky began to take on a blue attributed only with a dawning day.

Kakashi glanced up at the sun and noted its position. Approximately 7:45. Summer was beginning to really settle in this time of year.

They weren't too far from Konoha now. Just a few more hours. The trees were beginning to thin out just a bit, resembling something a little closer to what his village's forest and trees looked like. The air was also cooler and less dense.

Suddenly, he took notice of how much of the liveliness of the forest he could feel all around him. He could detect something stirring in the distance.

His ears picked up on it moments before the rest of his body did. A low whirring sound was coming from his left, getting louder and quickly approaching.

Kakashi instinctively threw his body back, just as he sensed a spike of chakra meters away.

A loud explosion went off from where he had stood just moments before. The eruption blew Kakashi further away and his back slammed painfully against a large tree. Not a second later, he instinctively flung his body to the right, away from the tree trunk, and heard the loud _thunks_ of shuriken piercing wood. From the dirt, he narrowed his eye as the black smoke cleared around him.

Up ahead, he heard the sound of combat between his teammates and their ambushers.

When the field finally cleared, he saw Yoshio and Kaito standing back-to-back, each wielding a weapon, surrounded by three ninja. Yoshio was speaking rapidly to Kaito, who was bleeding profusely from his right leg.

Kakashi pushed himself up from the ground, hurriedly dropping his pack to the ground, and rushed forward, a well-versed technique on his hands and lips. He created two shadow clones, and all at once they rushed the three ninja. But, just as he got within close range of the enemy, a shrill, high pitched sound rang out around the field. Kakashi promptly clapped his hands over his ears, trying to stop the sudden pounding in his skull. From either side of him, his clones dispelled. He clenched his eye shut, feeling a harsh sting grow somewhere in the back of his head. Distantly, he heard the faint thuds of flesh hitting earth. Before he knew it, he was down on his knees, curled forward protectively over his head. The jarring hum seemed only to get louder as time wore on.

When he believed he had finally gone mad from the noise, something rushed at him from seemingly out of nowhere and slammed into his side, knocking him over from his hunched position. A burst of pain exploded in his right arm as he landed on his back.

It was only when he realized the thing that had landed on him was actually a _person, _a _ninja_, that he took notice to the sudden absence of sound. The ringing had stopped. By then, his ambusher had vigorously forced him to the ground with his heavy weight. Kakashi furiously struggled from below despite the burning agony in his arm and tried to reach for one of the kunai strapped to his waist. A large hand pushed his away, and then trapped it to the ground. Thick legs bent at the knee settled weightily on his thighs, restraining his last possible movements. He could do nothing but glare at the load sitting on him.

"Well what do you know… a tiny Konoha _brat_." The voice from above was loud and mocking to Kakashi's ringing, sensitive ears. A sharp kunai was brandished from a large fist, and placed threateningly near his jugular. Kakashi froze.

He glowered at the face leering down at him, and studied the other ninja's features.

Sudden fury bubbled up from deep within him when his gaze fell on the glinting forehead protector strapped to his assailant's head. His body jerked and he angrily hissed, _"Iwa."_

"Make no sudden movements, or I'll let my knife here pierce that delicate, white, baby skin of yours. See how long you'll last with a slit in your throat and a puddle of blood soaking at your feet," threatened the ninja. The sharp tip of the kunai dragged lightly over his neck, teasing, leaving a faint white line against his pale skin.

"You Konoha ninja are like cockroaches. Kill one and ten more come to take its place. _Disgusting._ I thought we'd been blessed when I heard that the Nine-Tails had trampled on your village. But it seems not even a great demon can rid us all of you despicable insects," spat the enemy ninja.

Kakashi had to stop himself from wincing at the loud exclamation. The other shifted, which caused his broken arm to twitch from under him (and it was indeed broken, though not nearly as numb as he thought it'd be). His body was taut with tension as he narrowed his eye in resentment.

"Heh, hurts doesn't it? It's set to a frequency so high that it detains and interrupts the flow of chakra in the victim's body."

Kakashi had no clue what "it" was, but whatever it was, it sure packed a punch.

"You know… you look awfully familiar…" The Iwa nin inclined his head back, allowing himself a better view of Kakashi's masked face. Then, he barked out in scornful laughter, "Oh, _oh!_ This is just my lucky day! You're that _kid_ everyone's been talking about since the end of the war."

He leaned in close—much, much closer than he was before.

"You're the White Fang's tiny brat," he started, as his gaze focused in on Kakashi's covered eye, "Kakashi of the Sharingan."

The larger ninja lifted his hand holding the kunai from its position on Kakashi's neck, and his heavy arm, hand never releasing its captive's, came up to replace it. His forearm firmly pressed down on Kakashi's throat, preventing him from speaking properly. The kunai was placed near his temple.

"You should know, originally, my team and I were just going to kill you on sight, take a few things, then scamper off like the good ol' ninja we are. But I think I've just had a change of heart. I'm thinking… we leave this with as less carnage and death as possible." He paused. "How about we make a deal? How about you let me gouge that pretty little eye of yours out of your head, and I let you and your teammates live? Of course, I don't think you're in much of a position to refuse, but that's beside the point." He smirked. "So what do you say?"

Kakashi's mind began to race as he tried to think of a way out of his predicament. He stared for a moment at his left wrist trapped in his attacker's tight grip. He then flicked his eye to the side and looked over at his two teammates.

Yoshio and Kaito were both laid down on their fronts, hands roped together behind them. Each had their head pulled back by their hair, knives held sharply at their throats. Yoshio had several cuts all along his body, but was otherwise relatively well. Kaito, on the other hand, had a leg completely soaked in red blood. His skin was a sickly white color.

A sharp poke to his clothed temple and a tight squeeze to his wrist forced his gaze back to his captor. "Don't even bother. Your teammates can't help you. It's just you and me, kid."

Kakashi stared impassively at the other ninja in response, silent.

"… no? If you don't want to choose, it's fine. I'll make the decision for you," interjected the ninja.

Beside him, Kakashi forced the hand of his broken arm over, and dug his fingers into the dirt. His whole right arm pulsed with inconceivable pain, but he was able to close his hand into a loose fist.

"Now, don't move or I may just… _slip_ and accidentally take the other eye too," his captor teased.

Kakashi had to force his body from visibly tensing when the other ninja leaned his forward.

The moment the Iwa nin got within range, Kakashi _moved_.

He slammed his head powerfully against his captor's, and while the other reeled back in pain, Kakashi forced his broken arm up, a cry of agony bursting from his lips, and flung a fistful of dirt in his assailant's eyes.

The Iwa nin cried out in fury and outrage as Kakashi swiftly pried the kunai from his grip.

"Kill 'em! _Kill 'em now!_" The enraged ninja roared blindly to his unit.

Kakashi quickly took advantage of his enemy's blindness, throwing him off balance with a sweep of his leg, and positioned the stolen kunai at the fallen ninja's throat.

"Don't move," he said coolly, looking up at the rest of the ninja. "Any of you."

Everyone seemed to freeze in their place.

"Step back from my comrades and release them, or I'll kill your leader before your very eyes," Kakashi resolutely commanded.

The two still holding his teammates hostage did not react to his words. In fact, they weren't even looking at him. Instead, they had their gaze focused on their leader, whose eyes were clenched tightly shut from the dirt. Although the two could not make eye contact with their leader, the group seemed able to effectively communicate in some nonverbal way because within seconds, they nodded (however slight) in affirmation to something only they had privy to.

Not a moment later, the one restraining Yoshio peered up, looking nonchalantly into Kakashi's single dark eye, and stated loudly, "You hold no power over us."

Then, before Kakashi could react, they dug their kunai deeply and cleanly into the throats of their captives. A spurt of deep crimson went through the air, and then his teammates, Yoshio and Kaito, were no more. Their chakra snuffed out like a light. Then, they fell soundlessly to the ground, dead.

"_NO!"_

Suddenly, all he could feel was pure unadulterated fury, pulsing from every point in his body. There was screaming, louder and louder, followed by a quick eruption of pain in his skull.

And then all he could see was red.

Dark, sticky red.

The red of anger. The red of blood and death.

The red of…

"… _but I'll become your eye… and see the future with you."_


End file.
